Told this story at work today, figured I'd share for the masses.
Circa Aug 2005 I was at Hurlburt Field for the HAVEACE program for training on the AC-130 CFF procedures (was doing CFF on the range). Since I was a pilot, they invited me to fly with the AC-130 one night.
We were doing some ground escort training in P'cola first, ie, following a vehicle around the streets of P'cola, then we were going to go back to the range for some live fire. While working over P'cola, the navigator complained about his eyes hurting and getting a headache. The guys in the back simultaneously reported seeing a laser on their screens. Since the AC-130 uses both IR and LLLTV, they had both portions of the spectrum covered so they could see the laser. They literally could see the guy walking around in his back yard pointing the laser at the sky, as well as see the laser beam. They called down to the vehicle, gave it a talk-on to the "perp's" house, and from their the guys on the ground called 911 and reported the incident. Local PD responded fairly quick.
Considering it was a live fire night (which then got canx'd so they could get the Nav back to see the eye doctor), what are the odds of pointing a laser at an aircraft that can not only see the laser, see what you are doing, but is carrying enough live ordnance to make you cease to exist? Too bad they weren't able to fire back in self defense. Kidding of course, but holy cow, what if it had been the pilot and not the Nav who was affected?
